The Football Association of Maldives (FAM) released a statement saying that they hope to continue the Third Division Football League which had to unfortunately come to a halt in May, by the end of July.

In order to abide by the protocols of Health Protection Agency (HPA), FAM had brought about an abrupt stop to the league on the May 3. However, HPA on Wednesday announced the decision to lift the curfew and gave permission for sports to be continued, starting from Thursday. Therefore, Third Division Football players have now been given the opportunity to once again prepare for the competition.

According to a report by ‘Adhadhu’ on Wednesday, FAM’s General Secretary, Hussain Javaaz had informed them that under certain guidelines, players of the Third Division football teams have been granted permission to practice. However, permission to actually hold the tournament has not been granted as of yet. FAM is working on hosting the tournament after the Eid holidays, towards the end of this month in hopes that everything remains stable as it is.

This tournament began on the April 12 after the starting date had been pushed three times. FAM had originally planned on hosting the event on February 1. Then it was pushed to February 4 and then again to February 10. However, due to Covid-19, later on, it was even more behind schedule.

Earlier, FAM’s President Bassam Adeel Jaleel stated that since there were only a few matches left in the Third Division Competition, and stressed that it is essential that the competition is seen through to the end.

Therefore, he plans on exploring when the competition shall begin or end and states that the reason it is mandatory that this tournament is finished is because the Third Division matches decide who gets promoted to Second Division.

When the competition came to a halt this time, there were 14 teams competing in the tournament and up till today, there has been 12 matches played.

As Bassam announced that it is mandatory that the Third Division competition is seen through to the end, he spoke about how FAM had ended the football season early this time due to Covid-19. Therefore, as the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premium League finished their league during the second round, it has been decided that the FAM cup and the President’s Cup will not be taking place this year.